Talk:The Ifs of History
I like how Asimov was just like "Yeah, HT wrote an AH on some boring-ass Byzantine thing. Before you read that, I want you to think about an AH story that I'' would want to see." Imagine being asked to introduce a speaker and using your time at the podium to expound your own thoughts on the subject on which he will speak, thoughts quite different from the speaker's. Anyway, I'm glad Asimov didn't take this FDR-Forgets-To-Authorize-Manhattan-Project POD of his and try to write it himself. It's really not as cool as he thought; if nothing else, I'm sure Einstein and Szilard would eventually have been like "Yo, Frank! Did you get our letter or what? Because there's a world war on, and we can build you a superweapon that will win it for you. . . . " I'd also say Asimov's novel-writing style worked a helluva lot better set in the future than in the past, but saying that one of the most prolific and diverse authors of all time couldn't write in a partcular genre is just begging for trouble. Turtle Fan 06:53, July 12, 2010 (UTC) :I have a habit of checking talk pages when I look at edited articles so here we are. In tWTCE Herb Druce apparently cancels the atomic bomb project. Do you think HT had this in the back of his mind? I think it unlikely but who knows. ML4E (talk) 17:10, September 18, 2013 (UTC) ::It's possible. Certainly that did remind me of this essay. Turtle Fan (talk) 18:54, September 18, 2013 (UTC) You know, it didn't occur to me till just now, but this essay is not included in the Kindle edition of AoB that I read this past winter. That's a shame; I would have enjoyed reading an Asimov essay, even if I don't find the premise all that interesting. Turtle Fan (talk) 06:07, March 7, 2016 (UTC) :The essay is also not included in the 2018 re-issue. Perhaps its a rights issue with Asimov's estate? ML4E (talk) 16:23, March 19, 2019 (UTC) Necessary? "The Ifs of History" is an article about HT (in the broadest manner), not by him. Should such entities be included in this wiki?JonathanMarkoff (talk) 08:43, February 6, 2017 (UTC) :I'm actually inclined to agree. It would be a better fit at the Asimov wiki. TR (tal k) 15:20, February 6, 2017 (UTC) :I don't object to keeping it since it is an intro in one of Turtledove's first books but I won't fight to keep it either. ML4E (talk) 19:01, February 6, 2017 (UTC) ::Same as ML4E for me. Turtle Fan (talk) 22:55, February 6, 2017 (UTC) :::Asimov also wrote an intro to ''A Different Flesh, which has never been on this wiki. I'm sure there have been other guest intros in HT books, probably best left to their own authors' wikis rather than this one.JonathanMarkoff (talk) 19:54, February 7, 2017 (UTC) ::::Its not as if there are other, more significant articles that have not been written. This point has little merit. ML4E (talk) 19:29, March 3, 2018 (UTC) New all-purpose article? Maybe this bit could become the nucleus of a new comprehensive mega-article, sort of a reverse of Literary Allusions in Turtledove's Work. Something like "Turtledove References in Other Authors' Work".JonathanMarkoff (talk) 10:49, March 3, 2018 (UTC) :I don't see much use for such a mega-article. If you can come up with a substantive example using material other than The Ifs of History, I would be willing to look it over but I think introductory essays to collections merit articles here. ML4E (talk) 19:29, March 3, 2018 (UTC) There is a story based on IA's suggestion The last paragraph of the article should be changed to: []Neither Asimov nor Turtledove ever wrote a story based on this particular point of divergence. However, Frederik Pohl used a variation of it in his Asimov tribute story "The Reunion at the Mile-High" (1989), which first saw print in Foundation's Friends alongside "Trantor Falls". Rather than simply being forgetful, Pohl's FDR makes the conscious decision to nix Manhattan in favor of Alexis Carrel's Pasadena Project to weaponize a typhus strain.[] My own 2 cents: a very fun little wish fulfillment story with shades of Forrest Gump.Matthew Babe Stevenson (talk) 09:49, October 21, 2019 (UTC) :My copy of Foundation's Friends is in my parents' house. I'll check it out when next I'm there. Turtle Fan (talk) 22:50, October 21, 2019 (UTC)